Josiah Going for High Blue!

Josiah before his test.

Josiah is keeping continuing to earn his Taekwondo belts every two months.  I am not sure when this pace will slow, but I think as he gets closer to black that the intervals between tests will get longer.  Master Justin told me before that they do this smaller interval at the early stages to keep the children encouraged to keep moving forward.

This time Mommy got to see Josiah do the test and Daddy came to the belt ceremony (we switch each time).  I tried to be inconspicuous in the back taking photos and got a few good ones.  He did really well during his test and we were very proud.  Here is a video link to his tests.  The first one is of him doing the physical routines and the second is of him doing the verbal portion (they have to come prepared to answer a question about Taekwondo each time).  This time he had to be prepared to define the five codes of Taekwondo (respect, humility, perseverance, self control, and honesty).   On the verbal portion video, Master Justin explains the difference between calling Josiah "Jo-Sizzle" and "JO-SI-AH!!!"  It is "Jo-Sizzle" when he is doing good and "JO-SI-AH!!!" when he is not paying attention.  It is pretty funny. 

Josiah during the test.

Master Justin is pretending to pound Josiah here.  Josiah didn't want to pose for a picture (of course), but Master Justin didn't let him get away! 

Josiah with Master Justin. 

Daddy and Josiah went to the belt ceremony a couple of Saturdays after the original test and he got his actual belt.  You can see his "I'm proud, but don't want a picture" pose here.  They had to go to the Northside Dojang for this ceremony and there were a few black belts given out as well, which was a rare thing to get to see.  Hopefully, we will get to see Josiah get his black belt someday too! 

Josiah after the belt ceremony with his new high blue belt.

April Adventures

This is a collection of pictures from April that I thought I would include together, since there were just a few of them.

The kids love their apples and here we have the three littlest ones on the bench eating their apples with their feet on the recyling bin box in their jammies.  You can see Mr. Josiah hiding in the background eating his apple also!

Our apple eaters!

Josiah was watching a video for Social Studies about landforms here (the "V" to to show the landform in the picture of a valley) and I would like to point out that he still from time to time lines his cars up in a row as well.  The cars are watching the video with him is what he told me. 

Josiah watching a video for school with his cars.

Grandma Walker bought Miss Naomi this little ladybug suit for the summer and on this warm, sunny day in April she got to try it out for the first time.  She is actually trying to take it off here, but Mommy didn't let her do that!  Her modus operandi for "fun in the sun" was to get near to the pool full of cold water and then run away before or after her brothers splashed her.  She only likes to get wet when she decides! 

Baby girl in her ladybug suit.

Meanwhile, the brothers (and friends Colton & Kylie) were more than happy to get as wet as they could in the pool and threw everything but the kitchen sink in there with them.  However, I don't doubt that if a kitchen sink WAS available, they would have thrown that in there also!  You can also see Colton chasing a beach ball in the distance as well. 

The boys having some water fun.

This is a shot of the littlest kiddos showing me their muscles!  Aren't they strong?  They sure think so!  One thing is for sure is that they are very cute!

The little ones showing me their muscles!

Easter 2012

As always, it is very hard to get a group shot of these little monkeys, but I did manage to at least get the boys together at one point.  Josiah is at this stage where he hates all pictures and so to get a semi-smile out of him is a real accomplishment.  Here they were told to make a silly face. 



Three Silly Brothers

As Josiah was getting up from the chair, I snuck in a picture of him.  He had been trying to hide from me previously and is trying to grab the camera here. 

Josiah caught on film

Now that there is another girl in the family, I try to get a "girls only" pose for Easter as well in our fancy Easter attire. 


The girls of the family. 


At the silent auction at our church a while back, I bid on a basket that had these little projects in them for kids and one day the little ones and I pulled it out and they made little hats.  Not soon after this photo though, at least two of the hats were broken due to excessive rough play.  Can you hazard a guess whose hats were ruined? 


An Easter project that the little ones did together...making hats.

Miss Naomi was very cute as always in her new little dress.  She loves wearing her pretty dresses and gets very excited when I tell her she gets to put one on. 


Sweet Naomi girl!

Caleb and Daniel still like to pose for pictures, so I will be sure and take advantage of that while it lasts!  They look so grown-up here!  It is hard to believe they are four and nearing five now!! 


Brothers and Buddies!

This post was written WELL after Easter this year (though it was back dated), but I hope you all had a wonderful Easter season celebrating the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  It has always been my favorite holiday of the year and though I think we should remember Christ's sacrifice every day of our lives, it is wonderful to have a day to honor Him and celebrate with family.  This year, we went over to our friends the Lincks' home after church to have a wonderful ham dinner.  It was fun to visit with them and the kids loved playing together of course.